Hoshi University is a single-subject pharmaceutical university in Tokyo that originated in the staff education division of Hoshi Pharmaceutical Company in 1922. It became co-educational in 1946 and was given university status in 1950.
It consists of 1,800 students across the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical sciences. The School of Pharmaceutical Sciences includes a six-year pharmaceutical course, which aims to train pharmacists, and a four-year Drug Discovery Science Course, which aims to train drug researchers.
The educational policy of the university translates to "Our university is a cradle in which talents who will serve the world are fostered".
As well as developing pharmacists and drug discovery researchers, it is also a research institute that develops pharmaceutics.
Students must belong to one of the university’s specialised laboratories, of which there are over 20. These laboratories include specialities such as synthetic medicinal chemistry, pharmacognosy, organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, microbiology, pharmacology, pathophysiology and therapeutics, physiology and morphology and education.
The Advanced Life Science Research Center focuses on palliative medicine and neuroscience. It has two institutes: the L-Star aims to explore novel pharmaceutics by integrating knowledge into leading scientific fields. GRIL aims to match the university’s research with the needs of society. The Center also aims to connect with corporations, universities and researchers internationally and to publicise new research, drugs and health foods produced by Hoshi University.
Alumni of the university have gone on to work at companies such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis and AstraZeneca.